15 February 2005, Tuesday

First it was Matt Blaze with his papers on physical securty, mainly how to crack master key locks and safecracking, looked upon from the perspective of software security.

Then it turned out that the pen is mightier than some of the Kryptonite bike locks, check for example one of the numerous articles on the subject (also has video links how to do it).

And now these dutch guys demonstrate manipulating (techie jargon for not using a key) several high-end locks with up to 15 pins in bloody seconds! Here’s papers and video. They also defeated an expensive electronical chip lock with 128bit encryption with … a magnet.

The most interesting part is the reaction of the manufacturers and the locksmith circles - they actually DO think that obscurity makes good security, and that disclosing these ’secrets’ is very damaging to their industry. How about those people whose bikes were stolen or houses broken into?